Day 21 of Embracing Your Creative Gifts: We are the Earth's Caretakers

 

[God] created the human being, the noblest fruit of his design, to whom he subjected the visible world as a vast field in which human inventiveness might assert itself. – St. John Paul II, Letter to Artists

 

We are the earth’s caretakers. It is a role given to us by God himself. What an incredible responsibility. The world is constantly in progress and we do much to shape it. As St. John Paul II asserts, God also gave us the gift of inventiveness. We are not God who can create something out of nothing, but we do have the ability to use the raw materials of earth to make new things. We can have innovative ideas. We can build on the work of others and take inventions in new directions.

Human ingenuity is a tremendous gift, but we are called to use it in a responsible manner. We are to use it to care for the world, not destroy it. We are to use it to improve the lives of others, not harm them. We are to use it to bring beauty and joy to the world, not ugliness and pain.

God wants us to use our minds and our creativity. He did not create us to be robots. Each of us has something to offer and a role to play in caring for our world.

Every day we have the opportunity to make the world better in some small way. We can make it kinder, more beautiful, more peaceful. Depending on our individual gifts and our role in life, we might care for a flower garden to beautify an area or grow crops to feed the hungry, we might knit a scarf to both be attractive and keep someone warm, we might provide medical care to heal someone’s wounds and find a new way to bring comfort to the ailing, or we might discover the way to reach a particular child so that he or she can learn a new concept. The possibilities are endless.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to use the gifts you gave me to help care for your world and the creatures in it. Help me to always use your gifts for good.

Action

What can you do today to care for and improve the world in some small way? Thank God for the opportunity to contribute to his ongoing story of creation.

This is an excerpt from The Work of Our Hands. (Amazon affiliate link)